Reading guarantee not much of one at all

Next year, Ohio is ready to launch its latest one-size-fits-all education reform plan: the third-grade reading guarantee. Under the guarantee, children who aren't reading at a third-grade level, as determined by a test, won't be able to head on to the fourth grade in most cases.

Like other plans, such as the Ohio Graduation Test and others, the plan is well-intentioned. After all, who wouldn't agree that children should be able to read by the end of third grade? Of course they should. But the plan, once again, doesn't really go far enough to be a true plan.

Based on this year's tests, Scioto Valley schools would be holding back between 6 and 34 percent of their students. Those students would then repeat the curriculum of third grade - all of it, not just the reading classes - while at the same time mingling with younger students who might not have the same difficulties. If the curriculum didn't work for a child one year, why would it work the next?

That, in turn, leaves districts looking for alternative ways to educate struggling children. But, who pays for that? The state isn't sending any additional funding to help, so if districts want to pay for an alternative program, they either need to take the money from somewhere else or seek more funding from the community. Further, each district will then be free to create its own alternatives - which goes right back to the potential for unequal education.

All of that assumes that holding a child back would be the best thing for their development. Although in some cases that may be true, it certainly isn't true in all cases. Holding children back has been shown to lead to an increase in dropout rates, as well. We don't see how such a blanket policy can be good for all of Ohio's children.

The goal of getting all children reading by the end of third grade is a good one. However, we believe that to achieve the goal, the state needs a true plan that starts when children are in kindergarten or even preschool and follows them throughout, rather than simply putting up a barrier and a blanket directive that could, in the long run, do more harm than good.

- Information from the Lancaster Eagle-Gazette was used in this editorial.